The aim of this paper is to review the development and state of the art in the application of certain organosilicon compounds known as trialkoxysilanes (or simply silanes) to the problems of the metal finishing industry. The ultimate goal of this work is the replacement of chromate passivation and paint pretreatments, as well as overcoming the shortcomings of organic coatings formulated in the modern environmentally friendly world, thus without chromate or chromated pigments, volatile organic ca...

Nanocomposite coatings demonstrate improved friction and wear responses under severe sliding conditions in extreme environments. This paper provides a review how thin film multilayers and nanocomposites result in hard, tough, low-friction coatings. Approaches to couple multilayered and nanocomposite materials with other surface engineering strategies to achieve higher levels of performance in a variety of tribological applications are also discussed. Encapsulating lubricious phases in hard nanoc...

A novel concept has been developed to coat the inner pore surfaces of reticulated alumina with a thin silver film by an electroless-plating method. As a result of coating, the porous alumina sample exhibits a sharp transition from insulating to conducting due to a thin silver layer on the inner pore surfaces. Systematic studies have been carried out to investigate the coating kinetics by employment of scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and computer simulation. Both coat...

CrN coated steels assisted with a nano Cr interlayer were investigated. The Cr nano-interlayers were prepared by sputter deposition with a thickness about 70-100 nm. CrN coatings were also prepared by sputter deposition on the Cr nano-interlayers. The crystal structures, microhardness, and scratch resistance of CrN/Cr coatings were determined. Results show that the Cr nano-interlayers improve scratch resistance and the microhardness of CrN coated steels. A rapid heat treatment with infrared (IR)...

Carbide-derived carbon (CDC) is a form of carbon produced by reacting metal carbides, such as SiC or TiC, with halogens at temperatures high enough to produce fast kinetics, but too low to permit the rearrangement of the carbon atoms into an equilibrium graphitic structure. The structure of CDC is derivative of the original carbide structure and contains nanoscale porosity and both sp2 and sp3 bonded carbon in a variety of nanoscale structures. CDC can be produced as a thin film on hard carbides...

Interdiffusion can be a major cause of failure in coated parts that see service at elevated temperatures. Ways to measure the extent of interdiffusion and mathematical equations for predicting these measures are given. The equations are based on the error function solution to the diffusion equation and do not take into account variations of the diffusivity with composition. Also, when the substrate of the coating is multiphase, the equations do not take into account the precipitate morphology, b...

For nano-structured solids (those with one or more dimensions in the 1-100 nm range), attempts of surface modification can pose significant and new challenges. In traditional materials, the surface coating could be several hundreds nanometers in thickness, or even microns and millimeters. In a nano-structured material, such as particle or nanofibers, the coating thickness has to be substantially smaller than the bulk dimensions (100 nm or less), yet be durable and effective. In this paper, some ...

Silicon oxide nanowires tend to assemble into various complex morphologies through a metal-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth process. This article summarizes our recent efforts in the controlled growth of silicon oxide nanowire assemblies by using molten gallium as the catalyst and silicon wafer, SiO powder, or silane (SiH4) as the silicon sources. Silicon oxide nanowire assemblies with morphologies of carrotlike, cometlike, gourdlike, spindlelike, badmintonlike, sandwichlike, etc. were ...

The effects of preheating and pyrolysis temperatures and catalyst concentration on the synthesis of aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using ferrocene as the catalyst and xylene as the carbon source in chemical vapor deposition were experimentally studied. The as-grown aligned CNTs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electronic microscopy, high-resolution transmission electronic microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The growth rate, the diameters, and the d...

A high yield of silver nanotubes with large aspect ratio were conveniently synthesized via an organic-assist solvothermal preparation technique using polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping reagent and architecture soft-template. The molecular ratio between the repeating unit of PVP and AgNO3 plays a crucial role in determining the geometric shape of the product. Such novel-type Ag nanotubes were self-assembled by Ag nanoparticles, which had largely similar crystallographic orientation, forming...

We have investigated the very initial deposition stages of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with ferrocene (Fe(C5H5)2) and xylene (C8H10) for growing carbon nanotubes, and made clear that the mechanism for the self-organization behaviors of nanotubes at different growth stages by this approach. For instance, the organization of nanotubes into flower-like structures at prolonged deposition is developed from the crystal-like structures formed at early growth stages, both of which are closely relate...